Desktop app 26.901.41600: repeated macOS SIGTRAP in CrBrowserMain, possible read_thread correlation

Summary

The Codex/ChatGPT desktop app repeatedly crashes in its main process on macOS. Three local macOS crash reports show the same top five framework-relative frame offsets in the same app build. The latest crash occurred immediately after a successful read_thread response; this is a temporal correlation, not a confirmed root cause.

Environment

• App process: ChatGPT; bundle identifier: com.openai.codex
• App version: 26.901.41600 (7982)
• Codex Framework version: 152.0.7977.64
• macOS: 26.2 (25C56)
• Hardware model: Mac14,7; ARM-64 native
• System Integrity Protection: enabled

Actual behavior / frequency

The entire foreground desktop app terminates repeatedly. Three crashes were recorded on 2026-09-05 at 19:47:01, 19:50:06, and 19:55:21 UTC. The latest process had been running for approximately four minutes.

All three reports have EXC_BREAKPOINT (SIGTRAP), SIGNAL code 5, with the same top five image-relative offsets:

Crash signature

Triggered thread: 0, CrBrowserMain, com.apple.main-thread.

Top frames as reported by macOS (symbols appear incomplete; large symbol offsets should not be treated as authoritative function attribution):

0 Codex Framework ares_llist_replace_destructor + 21548
1 Codex Framework ares_llist_replace_destructor + 21440
2 Codex Framework reading_mode$cxxbridge1$197$parse_distilled_html + 15636324
3 Codex Framework reading_mode$cxxbridge1$197$parse_distilled_html + 15636204
4 Codex Framework v8::Context::Enter() + 1496
5 Codex Framework v8::Context::Enter() + 1180

Framework binary UUID: 4c4c4432-5555-3144-a168-6b40e0dc8dcb.

Events immediately before the latest crash

The app log shows read_thread starting at 19:55:19.942 UTC, followed by successful thread/read, thread/turns/list and multiple thread/items/list responses. At 19:55:21.353 UTC, electron-message-handler logged Sending server response with success=true and tool=read_thread. The macOS crash timestamp is 19:55:21.970 UTC, approximately 617 ms later.

Reproduction status

No minimal deterministic reproduction has been established. The observed workflow was reading an existing task's conversation history through the app's read_thread tool. This operation preceded the latest crash; equivalent log correlation for the other two crashes has not been established. Relaunching did not prevent recurrence.

Expected behavior

Reading task history should complete without terminating the desktop app. Any failure should be contained and surfaced as an error.

Diagnostic limits

The reports establish a repeating native main-process crash, but do not identify the failed runtime check or prove memory exhaustion, database corruption, a GPU fault, or a particular feature as the cause. Please symbolicate the matching framework offsets and investigate the read_thread response handling path.

This report contains a sanitized diagnostic summary. Raw app logs, private conversation content, local project paths, and account identifiers are intentionally omitted.

Start by symbolically resolving the listed Codex Framework offsets using the matching framework UUID, then trace the electron-message-handler read_thread response path described in the report. Done means the SIGTRAP cause is identified and the read_thread correlation is confirmed or ruled out, ideally with a reproducible case or regression coverage.